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Tongzhou District, Beijing — Area Guide & Where to Stay
Tongzhou District is a district of Beijing, in eastern China, and the seat of the city's Tongzhou Museum.
About Tongzhou District
Where to stay in Tongzhou District
Not every neighbourhood fits every trip — here's what each one is good for.
Tongzhou District is a residential and suburban part of Beijing rather than a hotel quarter. Tongzhou District holds few rooms of its own. Most travellers who want to see this side of the capital base themselves in central Beijing, then ride out to Tongzhou District for the day rather than sleeping in it.
The Tongzhou Museum makes an easy half-day from a central hotel. It is a place to visit, not a base.
About Tongzhou District
What are the main landmarks in Tongzhou District?
The Tongzhou Museum is the landmark that anchors Tongzhou District. It gathers the local history of this eastern part of Beijing under one roof, and it gives a district otherwise given over to housing and daily life a clear point to aim for. Beijing keeps its grand imperial monuments elsewhere.
Here the museum stands as the single formal draw in a quarter of ordinary lived-in streets.
What is the history of Tongzhou District?
Tongzhou District carries an older name than most of the newer suburbs around Beijing. Its name, written 通州区, marks it as a chartered administrative unit within the capital. Long before it became a modern district of Beijing, the ground here served as a working quarter on the eastern approach to the city, and that long standing is what the Tongzhou Museum sets out to record.
That name has endured for centuries. The place kept its own identity as the capital grew out to meet it.
Where is Tongzhou District?
Tongzhou District spreads across a broad and low-lying stretch of eastern Beijing, a large suburban borough on the flat plain that carries the capital out toward the wider country of China.
More areas in Beijing
Updated July 2026